Orlando To Host College Football Championship Yanked From North Carolina Over Anti-LGBT Hate Law

The ACC officially has a new location for its football championship game. The conference announced Thursday morning that the game will move to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. The move comes two weeks after the conference, following an NCAA decision, decided to move all of its championships outside of the state of North Carolina because of House Bill 2 (HB2), a state law that requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates instead of the gender with which they identify.

Because of HB2, the NCAA made the decision to pull all of its championships from North Carolina. It did not require the ACC to follow suit, but the league’s Council of Presidents said in a statement it did so “to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination.”

“Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC Championships at campus sites,” the statement said. “We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year. All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office.”

Camping World Stadium (formerly the Citrus Bowl) hosted several major Pulse memorials in the days after the attack.

So North Carolina, how’s that discriminatory HB2 bill workin out for ya?

Snarkaholic

I wonder how many of the restaurants that Pat McCrappy’s visited have served him a Sneezer Salad?

Judas Peckerwood

Snotchos!

Rex

That made me gag.
Ugh.

Judas Peckerwood

You weren’t supposed to eat them — they were meant for Pat!

Frostbite

Well they can report not a single female, who was never in danger of being assaulted by a transsexual person is still not in danger of being assaulted by a transsexual person. At least not in a bathroom, at the clearance rack in Marshall’s, well, that’s another story.

Thank the ACC – they went even further than the NCAA by pulling the football game. The NCAA didn’t pull the charter for the Belk Bowl, which is still in Charlotte.

Gustav2

Sweet, thank-you ACC.

JoeMyGod

My sister is an executive with the corporation that operates Camping World and she had a hand in planning the Pulse memorial held by the pro soccer team that plays there.

RobynWatts

When you talk to her again, please thank her and her employer (again) on our behalf.

Rebecca Gardner

I second that!

David Walker

Your sister, Camping World, the stadium employees, and Orlando are all to be thanked and congratulated…but maybe especially your sister. This is excellent news, and would be even better if I followed sports. Nevertheless, there could not be a greater … well, I was going to say something about “symbolic gesture,” but this is certainly more than that. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.

TodDH

and it was wonderful…

Kevin Perez

Of course it was superduper important for people to bring their birth certificate with them when they have to use a restroom. So .. totally worth it!!!!!

Drip…drip…drip. Sounds like that NC sports revenue stream isn’t flowing your way anymore. Perhaps you should check for plumbing problems in the bathroom; I suspect you have a governor clogging the pipes.

RobynWatts

It’s not only coming from McCrory, but a whole basketcase of pandering bigoted deplorables as well. Mostly Republican, but a few Democratic House members as well.

Uncle Mark

True…but the governor has certainly been among the main cheerleaders of HB2 Bill.

JaniceInToronto

Things must be pretty bad if people are celebrating moving -anything- to Florida.

Moving the event was one thing, but moving it to Orlando was extremely classy. Huge ACC fan now. Though I’ll never like Duke or UNC basketball no matter what.

PickyPecker

Long time no see, Bruno. Good to see you!

Bruno

Hey Picky! You too! Hope all is well in your world.

PickyPecker

Fine and dandy here. Autumn has arrived – and with it some wonderful temperatures outside! Hope all is well with you as well and you are enjoying the change of season.

Bruno

Hard to detect the summer to autumn change here in the Bay Area. But maybe it’ll start raining for a change come winter. That’d be nice.

Christopher

I miss the weather in the Bay Area. I loved how it could be 90 or more degrees outside, but if you found yourself near the pier you’d better have a light jacket.

And I’m a huge fan of the rain.

Bruno

Not a huge fan of rain in general, but we’ve had so little in the last 5 years it’s getting to be a hassle.

Jerry

It helps make up for their school poaching, which destroyed the Big East football and basketball conferences.

Bruno

The BEast could just never get a strong enough football lineup. When they had Miami, VT, Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse it wasn’t bad, but still considered the worst of the Big 6 conf’s in most years. I can’t really blame the ACC for doing what they did…the BEast probably would’ve done the same thing if they were up on them in the pecking order.

Jerry

Agree on the football part, but the Big East was THE basketball conference. I went to WVU…and in the money department, there was no contest in moving to the Big 12. Even at a 50% share in the first year, it was still $20 million more than Big East revenue.

Bruno

Yeah, it was. That’s the saddest part of it. Unfortunately, the basketball thing doesn’t drive the decisions. Football is such a beast when it comes to revenue. Speaking of all this, I hear Big 12 expansion may be dead.

Jerry

Yeah, ESPN had to agree to do weekly Thurs. (sometimes Friday) night football games in order to get TV rights to the Big East basketball.
I don’t think the expansion is dead, they’re just not rushing it, and I don’t think it’ll happen this year. Houston, BYU, Cincinnati, and UConn were the main schools I keep hearing under consideration…all but BYU would be raiding the new American Conference, which formed after Big East fell apart, with its remaining members and half of Conference USA. Big 12 needs 2 more for a conference championship game.

Bruno

I think BYU is pretty much dead because of the Honor Code, and the other schools aren’t tickling the fancy of Boren and TCU. Those are the rumors anyway…that the eligible teams just aren’t slam-dunk enough. We’ll see.

Jean-Marc in Canada

Dear North Carolina, see, electing the wrong people has consequences; oh, as a matter of course: dear U.S. of A., take note.

It would have been really awesome if it was moved to the SF Bay area. That would make the homophobes heads really explode.

m_lp_ql_m

Wasn’t there some sportsball championship in SF a few years ago where the losing sportsball team’s fans started using homophobic slurs against the winning SF Bay Area sportsball team?

Rebecca Gardner

Super Bowl 50 was played here this year. I don’t remember the homophobic slurs part though, but the 49ers weren’t in the Super Bowl. It was the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos.

johncAtl

That rings a bell. I think it was at a SF Giants game.

johncAtl

Hmmmm….Atlantic Coast Conference championship game played on the Pacific Coast?

Rebecca Gardner

I don’t know sports. I didn’t know what ACC stood for. 🙁

johncAtl

I guessed as much. 🙂

TuuxKabin

=;~)

JCF

“I don’t know sports.”

Sacre bleu! Return your toaster.

;-p~~~~

Sporkfighter

Why not? Planes, trains and buses all come to California.

Johnny Wyeknot

I love Orlando!

m_lp_ql_m

That’s no relation to Harold Camping, izzit?

johncAtl

Definitely no.

GayOldLady

Hooray for the NCAA and the ACC.

bob

I’m a bit surprised that it’s big sporting events that are taking the high road in leaving NC . Meanwhile, the restaurant association that probably has thousands of lgbt workers is the one bitching that the city of Charlotte make the first move .

djcoastermark

Yeah, I sent an email to the restaurant assn in NC the day they released that statement, with my email address listed (as per their request) to receive a response. That was how many weeks ago now ? Still haven’t heard nary a peep back from them.

Friday

Don’t forget HB2 came with a ban on minimum wage ordinances, they probably want *that* no matter how many LGBT people or others get hurt.